A Word on eBay
Well okay, quite a few words. For some eBay is the American Dream, and I don't think America has the sole ownership either, of the Dream of having your own business, maybe all the way, or maybe just an interesting thing to do in the evenings, bring in a few extra bucks, or just have fun selling things you love.
For some selling on eBay is a hobby or part of a hobby, like for people who enjoy auctions and yard sales- and then at some point you can't open your closet or garage doors anymore, so ya needs to sell some stuff. So you can get back to your real hobby- buying stuff.
I was going to offer a hotline number to Shopaholics R Us but it's buried under all the junk I bought last week.
I think eBay itself is a pretty good thing. It's huge, so it has some of the problems all huge companies face, like their customer 'service'….. well I feel like I've been serviced whenever I have to jump through those hoops and wait. But mostly eBay is a pretty good thing- in itself.
What some folks do with it is another matter. So many good inventions get distorted beyond recognition. The guy who invented the rocket really just wanted to get to the moon. And then some bozo figured out how he could waste England with it. Now we all sit on pins and needles hoping some other bozo doesn't decide to put nuclear warheads in the air and waste the whole planet.
Yeah I know, I'm a real ray of sunshine.
I think eBay should can its ultra privacy thing. You buy from someone, it doesn't arrive, options are limited. Or you're considering buying from someone- but you can't find out who they are, do they have a real store, sure you've got the feedback numbers to look at, and that's a real good thing to have a glance at too, but maybe it's just a housewife wanting to sell her old computer- she's not a pro, she's not going to have big trustworthy feedback numbers, so now what? Do you trust her and get a bargain, help her out at the same time, or pass?
This is not working for me because if you go to a yard sale, you know the person lives very near the yard you're standing in, and you can probably even see if it works for real before you buy. But if there is some bug shows up later, you know who to see and where they are to make an adjustment.
Same thing if you see something you like in a bargain trader ad, you have to go look at the thing somewhere and meet someone.
But eBay has their privacy policy. And a thousand other policies, they love policies. I think I'll avoid that subject because I'm sure we're all up to here with the words 'company policy' from everyone.
I think eBay should show the sellers real name and telephone number, and maybe a real address too, I mean where the person can be found and sued for damages if they sell a piece of crap for a diamond or a floor demo computer some kid flooded with soda for a new one. And a PO box is not an address, and a cellphone number is not a stable telephone number. Some people travel for a living and only have a cell- okay that person definitely needs to show a real address, verified by eBay every so often.
Okay I've covered my main complaints about eBay the website, but you know con artists and pirates only exist where they are tolerated, and they can only prey on those willing to be a nice plump tuna.
I get emails all the time and I once felt badly for them, and I don't anymore. Humphrey Bogart said in Casablanca- Everybody's got a story. If you're looking to buy something, and you know it's worth $50, shouldn't you be a little cautious when you see it for $34?
The 70's are over, there is little or nothing in todays' new world economy that carries a 200% mark-up, nothing that has so much airspace that a guy can use the old 'I work out of my garage and sell on eBay so I'm cheaper because I don't have any overhead' line.
Since this is a hobby shop, let's talk hobbies here- 45% mark-up is standard, that is from wholesale to list, like anyone has sold anything for full list in the last 20 years. That's on kits under $50. In the higher price ranges 30-35% is seen more often. Now like I said, we all discount some, maybe 8%, maybe 15%, maybe even 20%. No special sales, that's every day.
Now you've got a cost view, add in the shipping to get it from the importer to the store. If it's on eBay, well they get 9-12% roughly, more on items under $6. Now figure in the no overhead garage duffers selling on eBay for a dollar over dead item cost and thinking they're making money. Oh yeah, PayPal wants a 2.9% cut, and well worth it, ease of operation, many plus points there.
And we really should throw in some storefront overhead because no one is supposed to be able to get wholesale accounts from any importer without having a real store. Of course there's always a duffer with a 'friend' who owns a hobby shop and supplies him to help make up minimum orders. The other importers I know say they really want to shut that door, but I think it's a losing battle.
And here's my favourite- the so-called non-profit hobby club that buys case lots for it's members and dumps on eBay what's left over. Well, they have no storefront my importing friends- shut 'em down. Hobby clubs do not belong in the business side, and I don't think any of us are falling for that old bull anymore about sending free kits for them to 'review' either.
I have been threatened with negative feedback if I wouldn't sell a certain couple of clubs expensive and heavy to ship kits at cost- with me paying the shipping to them out of my own purse too! One of them got away with it because I was trying to follow some ridiculous company policy eBay came up with. It won't happen again.
So anyway I get these emails, they say- 'I'm buying from you because you show a real store and telephone on you eBay listings, and you have a stable website (yes I do), and I just got ripped off and eBay won't do anything about it.'
So I'm thinking the little bit of money 'bargained' on the last few kits is kind of offset by the total loss just suffered. Might as well have bought from a real hobby shop all along.
Because a real hobby shop doesn't just wildcat model kits. That's easy! Probably why the idea appeals to the 'get rich the easy way' duffers.
No no Love, a real hobby shop has paints and tools and glues and books and scratch build materials. Someone who can answer an email or telephone call- with a real answer.
You want to know did we ship yet? No problem, the shipping papers are all right handy, complete with delivery confirmation numbers. Works for you like a tracking number. Keeps us from being ripped off by the oh so many that try to say their kit never arrived so they want a second one free. They're very loud telling us what we owe them, and suddenly very quiet when we reply with exactly what day and what time they accepted their package.
You want to know is this kit moulded in color? Well I don't go round opening every kit, but I usually know that one.
How do you work with photo-etch parts? Ask me, I'm a builder too. Need to write a thing with pix about that…..
Want to know the actual bench working differences between ModelMaster and Vallejo paints? Talk to me, I have both on my bench, depends on what you're working on.
I'd be very surprised if any of the eBay duffers could or would answer most of the questions come in my email box. But after all they're only making a dollar on a $55 kit so whudya you want fer nuthin?
No, not all eBay sellers are monkeys, not even close. I sell on eBay. Of course the jury is still out on whether or not I'm any better than the animals sitting in the cages in the zoo mon (-Kinks 1968 'Apeman'). Plenty of people with real stores sell responsibly on eBay. But the world's electronic Marrakesh has its share of monkeys too.
Protect yourselves my modeling friends- it's an easy thing to do.
Don't buy from anyone who thinks they need to be totally private. Because there may be a good reason or two they don't want to be found.
Don't buy a new model kit from anyone who has a web full of them- but doesn't have a real store. Because he should not have them to begin with so there's an odor to the deal before you even bid.
Don't believe the often quoted lie that the seller has these new kits because he bought out a failing hobby shop. Most of the home-owned hobby shops went under in the late 70's, there aren't enough of us left to support the number of claims of buying us out. And I seriously doubt he bought a failing discount chain to sell on eBay.
If you're buying a used or vintage kit that a hobby shop would be unlikely to have, email the seller, see if the answer comes back with an honest feel to it. If you don't get an answer at all, I'll back a bet you never get your kit either.
Ebay gets hacked sometimes, they call it site hi-jacking. In a nutshell, if you see a site with 400 model kits and one real motorcycle that's worth $5000 for sale for $700 and the only acceptable form of payment for it is a song and dance about sending Western Union or a money order to Istanbul….. Well speaking of nutshells, you'd have to belong in one to fall for that. And yet two people last year walked into my store and told me how they got ripped off that way.
Please note that Western Union wire transfers and International Money Orders cannot be tracked nor recovered. Anyone who only accepts such forms of payment is almost certainly a thief.
Don't believe the 'privacy policy' nonsense. Any decent attorney can find anyone in two hours or less if they live any kind of honest life, so the idea that someone might sell $3000 a month on eBay and need to hide from 'the bad guys' is just plain bunk.
And again, that's why some of us have real stores. With real alarm systems. So we can open our doors in the morning, breathe some fresh air, talk with our customers, send our packages to the post, have dinner, and go to bed feeling good about the days' work.
You know, I think I want to say something just totally off the wall. This is actually printed on the side panel of my Accurate Miniatures airplane kits, it say 'Support your local hobby shop!'
I agree with that. Don't buy from eBay at all unless you're looking for that rare vintage kit- because that's what the flea markets of the world are all about, finding that unusual thing you just gotta have.
Flea markets were not designed for people like me, duking it out and price warring, making ten cents on new model kits. They're not fun anymore when too many of us show up.
I used to love flea markets, and I don't even think about them anymore. As soon as you've got 35 super deep discount stereo booths, and a dozen 14K gold booths all at 80% off!!!, and the pirated CD booths, and the incense booths with the prices X'd off like 10 for $1- XXX 12 for $1- XXX 18 for $1.…. Well I love a footlong dog with chili and hot mustard served under a tacky tent, but it's just too something.
Support your local hobby shop. Someone in your own town is trying to pay the light bill same as you and me. And even if the price is higher than eBay, and it will be! Figure it with the shipping, I'll bet it's about the same.
Don't buy from this website either. Unless:
You don't have a hobby shop close around. Chain type stores don't count.
Or you do have a hobby shop, but they don't have the horsepower to get what you want. Because I do, I can, and I will. As long as it's still in production, if you're looking for vintage then you can find it as well as I can because all computers search the same web.
Or you do have a hobby shop, but the guy's a cranky old bastard, I remember a few of those, and I ordered from catalogs back then.
Rebeccas' Workshop is not necessarily bigger than most, or cheaper, yes I hate that word but let's call it what it is. I do love model kits and those who build them. Well, I love most of you anyway, there are always a few stinkers.
Rebeccas' Workshop, along with Squadron in Texas and Model Expo in Florida, we all do have a thing or two no one else has. But we're also set up to supply your local hobby shop.
For my own store and website I am happy to order things for you that maybe I didn't even know existed, in fact I've found some of my neatest kits that way from special orders. I promise to always keep my prices fair- for you and me. We both have light bills to pay.
I try to be pleasant, we do answer our telephones, I have opened kits to see this or that and answer a question, and emails are a favourite because we get busy in the showroom so we can reply when we have a clear mind, and we answer emails in 12 hours usually a lot sooner. The computers are on all day, most of the night, and we work all different hours.
I do not charge more for special orders, in fact if you pay up front so I don't have any cash out you just might get it for cost and 10%. With luck you'll have a stock number for me or at least a full description because cost and 10 doesn't hold if I have to search an hour for the thing.
I do not profit on shipping like so many web and catalog mail order companies do- it's just plain wrong. If I want X price for something then that's what I show it for. No time for games here, it's a Workshop.
I say goodnight now with this thought-
When more people support home-owned hobby shops, home-owned stores of all kinds, maybe more people (maybe even you) will NOT have to say "Welcome to Super Cheap Mart, can I get you a basket?"
To be downright sentimental about it, we all want the America we knew once with interesting little shops and every deli & ristaurante had its own family specialty. Well my friends, we killed them, you and me, spending our money in the glitz and glam of the shopping malls and the huge selection discount indoor football fields.
Yes, while we were being cool buying the latest big name things, our friends and neighbors were quietly dying on the vine.
We've learned better now, we know the value of Main Street, or Maple Street as it is here in our little town. My toys are not 'units' and I don't care what the 'numbers' are on any particular kit.
And if someone manages to put together the control-freaks' dream, that is a huge online store with factory drop-shipping, and we can't buy the big name kits anymore- well, I'll just design my own damn kits and then I won't sell to them.
That big time drop-shipping thing is right now destroying small music stores but I think those of us in hobbies have some options to fight it with.
Maybe we're just a couple of left-over freedom lovers from the 70's. Then again maybe we're into the latest trend. I was singing that George Harrison song with a friend of mine some years ago, "Long time ago when we was fab…", and he stopped me and said "Hey Baby, we're still fab!"
So here we are, with a business no banker would back, insert laughter here because everyone knows hobby shops are a losing proposition. All I can say is "Not today!"
We believe in what we're doing, we like what we're doing, and I can promise you that with the backing of being jewelry designer and gem cutter (retired), this Mom & Mom shop is here to stay.
Rebecca Armand 2008
